Guest post and Freudmann CV

Guest post

I would like to make the following representations and would welcome the opportunity to both expand on these matters and provide supporting evidence.

I would assert that any decision made without recourse to the history of this application would be flawed.

That history starts in Lahr, Germany. Anthony Freudmann was the ‘Managing Director of a UK limited liability company. This company, Integeral Ltd bought the majority shareholding in the entity operating the defunct Black Forest Airport at Lahr. As in the case of Manston, this is a former military airbase that has had several owners attempting to turn around it’s fortunes, including Mr Freudmann himself, as Vice President of Wiggins / Planestation.

The business plan for Lahr was a scaled down ‘cargo centric’ version of that presented with the current application. The emphasis would be on cargo. Promises were made of lots of jobs, a Nigerian carrier moving base to Lahr etc. The public announcement being made on the 20^th June 2012.

Workers go unpaid and no planes take off.

The two directors of Integeral Ltd had been Sanjeev Joshi and Daryn Soards. Soards was made personally bankrupt on the 24^th January 2012.

Whilst Mr Freudmann was representing Integeral on the ground at Lahr, a winding up petition in respect of the company had been presented to the High Court on the 25^th July 2012. One of the findings of Richard Snowden QC in handing down the final judgement in that case, was that Integeral had been insolvent and unable to pay it’s (UK) employees from 1^st December 2011. It would appear that Integeral had been trading whilst insolvent.

The judgement winding up Integeral was passed down on the 5^th February 2013. It would seem that the tribunal was unaware of Integeral purchasing shares in Lahr. The only mention in the judgement of the Lahr project relates to loans made at Integeral’s behest by one Douglas Maggs to a company involved in a project there.

From a local news report, it would seem that the Corporation of Lahr were unaware that Integeral Ltd no longer existed as a trading company. The airport operating company had at this time, itself gone into administration.,

When the local authority launched a bidding process for a new airport operator a bid is submitted by Annax Aviation Ltd. This company had just one director, Anthony Freudmann but was registered at the same address as all of the corporate entities of which Douglas Maggs is an officer.

Annax’s bid was unsuccessful. Mr Freudmann then turned his attention to Manston. It is believed that he was involved in persuading Anne Gloag to purchase the airport in the autumn of 2013. Feasibility studies are then commissioned by Mr Freudmann with regard to the building of houses on the area of the airport land known as the Northern Grass.

In early 2014, after it became clear that Anne Gloag had taken the decision to close the airport and it would seem that Mr Freudmann then went in search of financial backers to purchase the airport.

A businessman, resident in the Columbian city of Bogota expressed an interest in investing in the airport to Sir Roger Gale who immediately referred him to Mr Freudmann. Doubts grow as to whether the ING bearer bonds that he presented as evidence of capital were in fact genuine.

RiverOak Investment Corps of Connecticut are then named as the new investors. 

BBC journalist Mark Norman interviewed Freudmann with regard to the involvement in his project of Sanjeev Joshi and Daryn Soards. Mr Norman had been made aware of the judgement of Snowden QC in the Integeral winding up proceedings and in particular that Snowden QC had found that Joshi had misled the court (in fact the judgments suggests that not only had Joshi lied to the court but had fabricated evidence). Freudmann stated in this interview, that they, (Joshi and Soards) were “just the introducers” and that “I am not aware of either of these people’s personal circumstances”. Mr Norman had of course been unaware of Freudmann’s own involvement with Joshi and Soards or that he had fronted Integeral at Lahr. Interestingly, within minutes of this interview Mr Norman received a phone call from a very irate Sir Roger Gale.

What happened next with regard to River Oak Investment Corps’ attempts to obtain the airport lands up until this application is well documented. I would however comment that at the first ‘official’ public consultation related to this application, it was confirmed to me that Douglas Maggs and Daryn Soards still had involvement in the project at the time that BDB solicitors took over the instructions.

Anthony Freudmann has played a central part in the various attempts to obtain the airport lands. In 1993, he was struck from the roll of solicitors by the High Court following a successful appeal by the Solicitors Complaints Bureau. He was found not to be a fit and proper person to hold a practicing certificate or to be entrusted with client funds. At this time he had achieved a great deal, not only holding the status of managing partner of the firm but was also leader of Shropshire County Council and held part-time judicial office. The High Court decision followed his admission to the mis-appropriation of client funds over a 5 year period.

Re-inventing himself as a businessman, Mr Freudmann joined Wiggins later renamed ‘Planestation’.

His RiverOak bio emphasises his role in the acquisition of interests in a number of European airports, (all former military basis). These together with acquisitions and attempted acquisitions in the middle east and the Americas were in fact cited by Sir Martin May as a substantial cause of Planestation’s problems when he was brought in to try and rescue the company. In the interests of brevity I will not detail the fate of each of the 12 airports here. Suffice to say that most lay dormant and none were successful. It is not only Mr Freudmann who cites this airport acquisition programme in positive terms on his CV. Former Freudmann colleague Sally Dixon, the author of the ‘independent’ Azimuth report, on which this application is premised, also presents this part of her career in a positive light.

Also vaunted in his bio is his experience in the travel industry. The reality of Mr Freudmann’s experience would seem to be that, having taken over the directorship of a number of travel companies, within a two-year period all had gone into receivership. These companies including Majestic Travel, founded by his father in the 60’s and Travel Club of Upminster that had been incorporated in 1936. The failure of these companies left travellers stranded around the globe.

It is not known whether Douglas John Maggs is currently involved in this ‘project’. He was made personally bankrupt in 2016 and has been associated with considerable controversy in his business career. Most notable perhaps, is his having being found by the High Court to have defrauded a Russian businessman out of £2 million. Wharf Land of which he was director, was also involved in controversial projects to redevelop Sandown Airport and the former Wisley airfield.

I do not know why RiverOak Investment Corps determined to disassociate themselves from this application. It is however clear that George Yerrall is still based at RiverOak Investment Corps offices in Connecticut.

Those who dared to question RiverOak's plans at their various consultations only to be met with offensive language and the rants of Niall Lawlor, would not be surprised that he has a criminal conviction for assault. The incident in a New York restaurant involved a group attack on one man.

I would submit that there are many who either are or have been associated with the project who would have difficulty meeting any test of ‘good standing’.

The business plan

As previously stated, the business plan for a cargo hub differs only in scale to that presented by Freudmann to the administration at Lahr. It has been upscaled to try and meet the requirements of a NSIP but in essence is the same tired plan. The independence of the Azimuth report has to be questioned given the authors former involvement with Freudmann at Planestation and of course her report flies in the face of those reports commissioned by others. Many others will have addressed the obvious contradictions in the business plan and the duplicity of the actual application documents as compared the verbal and written statements emanating from the applicants and their political supporters.

Finances

It would seem that the calculations prepared for their application are premised on the site being worth less than £10 million. One would have thought that the applicant would have determined whether there were any recent decisions of the Upper Lands Tribunal to see if there were any precedents that might assist in this calculation. Had they done so they would have found decision ACQ 91 2011. Were the site to be assessed on a wood or scrub basis it would have been worth £15 million and on an industrial basis, £118 million. I suspect that land values have not declined in the last 7 years.

The applicants have consistently failed to demonstrate either the existence of the necessary funds or indeed the source of their funding. If the history of this application has no other impact, it should perhaps ensure that those considering it are satisfied that the finances are in place and that those finances are from a transparent source. When I asked the representative of BDB Solicitors whether a Russian businessman associated with the Switzerland based directors of RSP, was one of the investors, I was advised that “even he didn’t know who the financiers were but that he could have a good guess”.

Here endeth the guest post

What follows is a potted history of Anthony "Tony" Freudmann

TONY FREUDMANN CV

1946   Born Wrexham North Wales

1964 – 1967 LSE - Law (LLB)

1967 – 1982  Legal Practice (Commercial Law). This includes 9 years as a Deputy District Judge

N.B. The title District Judge did not come in to being until 2000. There were stipendiary Magistrates so whether he was a stipe or not isn’t clear. His claim to have been a DDJ for 9 years means that when appointed he would have only had 4 years Post Qualification Experience on appointment. The requisite for a Stipe as per DDJ was a minimum 7 years PQE and then very unusual.

1982 – 1989  Shropshire County Council - Leader

The info regarding TF's 'early years' comes from various statements that he has made. However he was apparently working for the Shrewsbury firm Wace, Morgan & Salt in 1986 as he was dealing with the probate of one Daphne Newman

1989   Founded a consultancy “Advising public authorities on accessing structural funding from the EU”

1994   Joins Wiggins as Senior Vice President (Wiggins is a land management and property development company formerly Southend Sand & Gravel Co founded in 1948)

1999   Wiggins buy Kent International Airport Ltd

Other Wiggin’s airports while Freudmann was responsible for airport acquisition:

Odense, Denmark - 2000 Local Authority running the airport enter joint venture with Planestation. Local Authority end agreement essentially on breach of contract seeking $1.7 m. This was arbitrated down to $850,000 re unpaid rent.

Pilsen, Czech Republic - 2000 Takes on lease from Czech MoD.  $279 million deal with Bae to redevelop as commercial airport. This does not seem to have got very far and the local operating company Planestation Pilsen  was sold to Babcock Brown on the demise of the parent company. Eventually in 2013 the MoD terminated the agreement on basis of breach of contract.

Lahr Airport - A history of failure. Sold to Babcock & Brown when Planestation enter voluntary liquidation.

Schwerin Parkim, Northern Germany - Didn’t pay the rent. Kicked out Feb 2005 and settled for 3 million Euro.

Cuneo, Levaldigi, Italy - Take 43% stake in airport 2001. Withdraw having made heavy losses 2004, despite heavy funding from the Italian Government to develop the airport.

Ajman, UAE - Grand $800 million project to build airport (a scheme seen in the industry as bizarre) is abandoned in 2003

Borgond (Alba), Hungary -  June 2004 Contracts with local authority for joint investment. A year later Planestation goes under without any significant work commencing.

Smyrna, USA - June 1999 Announce ambitious proposals for this joint military / civilian airport which is going to be their corporate HQ. Withdraw from project 2003 citing issues re the expansion of the runway which was strongly opposed locally.

Melbourne, Florida USA - June 2004 Sights set on this airport to replace Smyrna as US base. Deal would involve considerable funding from local and federal governments. The project is in development when Planestation go under.

All of the above were former or existing military bases, targeted because “ideal airports are former military bases with ample availability of surrounding land which can be developed using the real estate experience of Wiggins”

2004             Wiggins Group PLC becomes Planestation PLC

2005 Feb      Ousted from Planestation PLC.

“Tony Freudmann also had the following to say regarding personal accusations thrown at him “I was responsible for Manston’s conversion to a civilian airport, building it up as a cargo airport and then being ‘let go’ when I protested that the EUJet plan made no economic sense.””

Martin May was brought in to try and save Planestation. Says May in Sept 2004:

‘When I first arrived here I realised that the commercial “vision” of the previous management was merely vapour.

“When I came here, we were spending money to no particular end. Last year, we spent £11 million maintaining dormant airports. The previous year, £13.5 million. It wasn’t too hard to work out that revenue generation built on a scalable business model was what was needed.

Ever the pragmatist, May acknowledges much remains to be done. ‘I am a sensible businessman. I’m taking one step at a time. The board here has collective goals and every individual employee here has personal goals. We are still not profitable but the days when this company was an acquirer of assets and a stealer of ideas is over. Our target is to be cash neutral by March next year. I intend to make it.’ “

2005 Apr      Founds Freudmann Tipple International Ltd (He always refers to this as FT International Ltd. This in fact is a footwear company in Surrey with no connection to Freudmann). Is this the same Tipple who was CEO at Manston?

2005 July     Banks pull the plug on Planestation PLC / EU Jet. Enter Infratil

2007             FTI provides consultancy services to Infratil working on a route from Manston to Norfolk, Virginia. This doesn’t get off the ground.

2009 March  Becomes a Director of Active Energy Active Energy Ltd founded as a subsidiary of Steven Freudmann’s Cinpart. Cinpart having 65% Equity, 10% Alpha Prospects (TF & SF) with 25% of Equity to Steven Coombs who as SDC Industries manufactures VoltageMaster Energy saving devices.

2011 Sept     FTI still trading. KCC pays fees of £4000 for APTC Staff.

2012 Feb      Founds SDCI Ltd with Nadav Zohar (Believed to be related to the above energy saving businesses) No accounts filed.

2012 June    Working with Integeral Investments (Directors Sanjeev Joshi & Darin Soards who appear again in negotiations with Anne Gloag re Manston. One of the Investors is the notorious Douglas Maggs) Integeral is already insolvent when agreement reached with the local authorities in Lahr to run the Black Forest Airport, previously run by Wiggins / Planestation.

2013 Jan      Integeral wound up.

2013 Feb      Still representing a now non-existent ‘Integeral’ in negotiations at Lahr.

2013 June    Forms Annax Aviation and Annax Aviation Airports, registering these companies at the address of former Lahr investor, Douglas Maggs.

2013 July     Annax enters the tendering process to run Lahr. Bid is unsuccessful.

2014 Jan      Makes enquiries re the potential for house building on the Northern Grass at Manston Airport

2014 29 Jan Annax in negotiation to purchase Manston from Gloag. Heads of Agreement signed. Falls through. (Likely fronting for Integeral team)

2014 24 March       Sir Roger Gale announces that a consortium is desirous to purchase Manston from Anne Gloag. (Very likely TF and Integeral)

2014 27 March       Letter of Offer made by the consortium

2014 2 Apr             Offer withdrawn by consortium

2014 4 May            Fronts RiverOak LLC bid to purchase Airport from AG.

2014 28 May           Founds Dublin Registered Company AA Leasing Partners Limited (Aviation leasing, Aircraft dismantling, parts )

Travel Industry Involvement

Some of the acquisitions were direct whilst others were made through Alpha Consolidations Ltd and Alpha Prospects PLC . His foray into the Travel Industry is inextricably linked with his younger brother Steven Freudmann who has been involved in the travel industry from the founding in 1967 of Majestic Travel. He was a director of ABTA for 18 years and its President between 1997-2000.  He resigned his Directorship after calls to do so from creditors of Seligo / Unpackaged and rather than face awkward questions from the board re the collapse of and involvement in, the Unpackaged Group run by Tony and Alpha Prospects (Stevens baby as well).

Tony’s first acquisition would seem to have been in March 2007 acquiring Carefree Travel 22/3/07 and Radiant Travel 22/3/07, also Travel Club of Upminster, (founded in 1936) Upminster Travel, Austria Travel 19/1/09, Majestic Travel (Steven Freudmann’s company) 6/2/09 and Seligo Holidays 23/2/2009.

Useful summary from Travel Trade Gazette

·        Steven Freudmann is a director of Alpha Prospects, a plc listed on the junior Plus stock market and set up in 2008 to invest in travel companies.

·        His brother Tony Freudmann was a director of Unpackaged Holidays Ltd of which Seligo was a trading name.

·        Tony Freudmann is also a director of The Travel Club, the company which bought the assets of Unpackaged Holidays.

·        Tony Freudmann is also a director of Unpackaged’s parent company, UHN Ltd, of which Alpha Prospects has an option to acquire.

·        Tony Freudmann is also a director of Seligo Holidays Ltd, which was set up in February and could now become the trade arm of The Travel Club. 

·        Alpha Prospects also has an option to acquire Alpha Consolidations Ltd, which owns The Travel Club Ltd.

 Net result of TF’s involvement in Travel Industry was the rapid demise of a number of long established operators.  None of the travel companies seems to have survived.

Planestation: turnaround from hell

Losses of £73 million, an ousted management team and huge overheads are just three of the factors that have plagued airports and property group Planestation – yet one entrepreneur is aiming to make the business profitable.

Date: 01 September 2004

Article: Analysis

Losses of £73 million, an ousted management team and huge overheads are just three of the factors that have plagued airports and property group Planestation – yet one entrepreneur is now aiming to make the business profitable.

'I don’t think I’ve got an easy job, that’s for sure,’ is how Martin May, one of the UK’s foremost turnaround practitioners, describes the task before him at troubled airports and property group Planestation.

To anyone who has a passing knowledge of this group, his comments will smack of extreme understatement, because, up till now, Planestation has been one of the most woeful ventures ever to grace the London Stock Exchange.

Over the past ten years the group, previously known as Wiggins, has raised more money – north of around £115 million – than its actual market valuation. With this cash it built up an international chain of seven (hitherto largely dormant) airports and an assortment of property interests and assets in the UK. Apart from property disposals, it has generated little in the way of revenues, milked its investor base for all they were worth and produced gargantuan annual losses – in the past 48 months alone it has lost more than £73 million.

The group was only saved from complete collapse at the turn of the year when no less than £46 million was raised from City institutions to repay an almost equal amount of mezzanine finance that was accruing interest at 28 per cent (yes, we’re not lying, twenty-eight per cent!). After this fundraising, chief executive Oliver Iny walked the plank. He was shortly followed by the chairman, Richard Bernays and non-executive director Lady Rona Delves Broughton.

Knowledge is strength
Even for May, who has engineered a few spectacular turnarounds over the past ten years, transforming Planestation into a proper business represents something of a special task. But he exudes charm and calm in equal measure and says he is ‘excited’, not perturbed, by the challenge ahead.

‘I know my strengths and weaknesses, as all chief executives should. I am not good at business development, I am not a specialist in any particular sector. What I am good at is fixing things.’

Fixing things is indeed his forte. Since leaving a global packaging specialist in the late 90s May has worked wonders at a very diverse selection of companies. Among his most successful commercial reinventions has been Gresham Computing, where he transformed the loss-making, indebted venture into a profitable re-financed concern within six months.

His most recent project has been Cape, where he is still chairman. He joined in June 2002 after it had leaked so much cash its shares had bombed and debts were topping £50 million. Now, it is trading profitably, its debts are negligible and, in response, the shares have soared tenfold.

A meticulous 12-month plan
Says May, ‘in distressed business you meet many similar problems. There are always immediate cash concerns, the incumbent management are very often “blockers” of change, margins are weak and staff morale is non-existent.

’When I come on board I engender a 12-month time- and task-orientated plan to get the ship afloat. It’s about real business goals, revenue generation and management inspiration.’

For May, the first quarter in his standard recovery plan is all about ‘stopping unnecessary spending immediately’. He also identifies non-core assets that can be off-loaded for much needed cash.

The next three months is then about establishing ‘short-term corporate and financial goals’ to ensure that by the third quarter ‘management changes are in place and a temporary platform built to start developing a viable future strategy’. The last three months of his first year is then devoted to ‘really making a step change to take the business forward’.

Hard medicine
The first six months at Planestation have, by and large, followed this philosophy to the letter. ‘When I first arrived here I realised that the commercial “vision” of the previous management was merely vapour. Like many failing concerns, it was truly a lifestyle business. It was full of hobbies.’

To reinforce the point he highlights the fact that annual head office costs were no less than £7.8 million. This figure included the £600,000 it cost to lease Planestation’s wonderfully indulgent Georgian offices on London’s grandiose Berkeley Square. Head office costs have been slashed and the group has relocated to a small space at the back of the building. The rest is being sub-let.

Another ‘pet project’ he put to the sword was the previous management’s harebrained attempt to build a 1.4-mile-long grandstand (designed by leading signature architect Lord Foster) at its property site in East London. This was part of its overall plan to build a ‘London City Racecourse’. Says May, ‘A total of £2.8 million was spent on this design, which, unsurprisingly, failed to get planning permission.’

Beyond cost-cutting
On the finance front, a £5 million cash injection was completed recently, with most of the new investors being tempted in by May’s new realism and much progress has been made on the actual business.

Of the group’s seven airports, three have been designated core and revenues are at last beginning to tumble in.

At Kent International, Planestation’s flagship asset, passenger services are finally up and running following the launch of Europe’s newest airline, EUJet. Planestation invested £2 million for a 30 per cent stake in this airline. Two planes are operating, and the plan is to have seven on the go by next year. The other major development at this site was the final completion of a Border Inspection Post (one of only eight in the UK). This, it is hoped, will become a serious destination for those shipping fresh produce and other cargo into the UK.

At the group’s Lahr airport in Germany’s Black Forest, charter flights are landing and taking off and plans are afoot to increase cargo capacity. Over in the US, Planestation’s plans to take holiday-makers from the UK and Europe to Florida are developing rapidly.

Property solutions
As for its property division, May is in negotiations to sell the group’s residential property interests in Liverpool. Many now reckon that due to his patience, he is likely to reel in more than the £9 million previously mooted by analysts. In Oxfordshire, a future residential development is at the planning stage and in East London, a revised (and more sensible) proposal for a racetrack has been resubmitted. £30 million, say commentators, is what could be raised over the short- to medium-term from three-to-four sites.

Says May, ‘When I came here, we were spending money to no particular end. Last year, we spent £11 million maintaining dormant airports. The previous year, £13.5 million. It wasn’t too hard to work out that revenue generation built on a scaleable business model was what was needed.’

Ever the pragmatist, May acknowledges much remains to be done. ‘I am a sensible businessman. I’m taking one step at a time. The board here has collective goals and every individual employee here has personal goals. We are still not profitable but the days when this company was an acquirer of assets and a stealer of ideas is over. Our target is to be cash neutral by March next year. I intend to make it.’

http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/the-entrepreneur/be-an-entrepreneur/198/planestation-turnaround-from-hell.thtml

Freudmann is still director of a number of companies one of which is FREUDMANN TIPPLE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED (05429140)

Interestingly this company is nothing to do with the Riveroak Strategic Partners (RSP) group of companies but has £1/2M tucked away in the bank belonging to RSP.

Seems that when bills needed paying Tony Freudmann paid them from FT International Ltd. Surely with an investment running into millions RSP seem not to have a bank account in the UK.